'Congress in Haryana being run as a personal fiefdom': Senior leader Kiran Choudhry, her daughter Shruti resign

The resignations came just a couple of months ahead of the Assembly elections and amid speculation that Kiran Choudhry may join the BJP.

New Delhi: Senior Haryana Congress leader Kiran Choudhry and her daughter Shruti Choudhry, who is also state Working President, resigned from the party alleging that the organisation is being run as a “personal fiefdom” of Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The resignations came just a couple of months ahead of the Assembly elections and amid speculation that Kiran Choudhry, presently an MLA, may join the BJP and likely to be fielded as its candidate for Rajya Sabha bypoll from the seat vacated by Deepender Hooda upon his Lok Sabha victory.

The Choudhrys were also said to be upset with the Congress leadership over denying ticket to Shruti from Bhiwani Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat on the alleged insistence of the senior Hooda, who is said to have an iron grip over the party machinery in the state.

Kiran has been an MLA from Tosham since 2005. The seat was represented earlier by Bansi Lal and her husband Surender Singh and the family represented the seat for 44 years since 1967. Shruti won from Bhiwani Mahendergarh seat in 2009 but lost in 2014 and 2019.

During the controversial 2022 Rajya Sabha election from Haryana in which Congress' Ajay Maken was defeated despite the Congress having numbers, it was speculated that one vote that became invalid was that of Kiran. Maken himself had made the allegation then.

The troika of Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala and Kiran Chaudhary, known as ‘SRK’ group, had joined hands against Hooda ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Selja was the only one among nine Congress candidates who was not part of the Hooda camp.

In her letter, Kiran Choudhry, the daughter-in-law of former Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal, said she has been a “loyal and steadfast” member of the Congress for the last four decades.

“However, it is most unfortunate that the Congress party in Haryana is being run as the personal fiefdom leaving no space for sincere voices like mine, who have been stifled, humiliated and conspired against in a most well-orchestrated and systematic manner, thus, significantly hampering my diligent efforts to represent our people and uphold the values I have always stood for,” she said without naming Hooda.

She said she is “compelled to look ahead at a fresh start” in order to realise the aspirations of people and workers.

In her letter, Shruti claimed that the Haryana Congress has “unfortunately become one-person centric who has compromised the interests of the party for his own selfish and petty interests and it is thus time for me to move on so that I may continue to uphold the interest of my people and the values I stand for”.